U.S. patent number 5,411,259 [Application Number 07/984,304] was granted by the patent office on 1995-05-02 for video sports game system using trading cards.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Hero, Inc.. Invention is credited to David W. Hood, Carl P. Pearson.
United States Patent |
5,411,259 |
Pearson , et al. |
May 2, 1995 |
Video sports game system using trading cards
Abstract
The system includes a control system (12) which carries out the
performance of a video sports game, such as a baseball game, and
controls the display on a video monitor (14). Input information
concerning the performance of players in the game is supplied via
trading card elements (20--20), each of the trading card elements
having a conventional trading card appearance which includes a
photograph of the player and performance data in human-readable
form. The trading card element (20) also includes machine-readable
performance information (input data) which is readable by a card
reader (22) which applies the input data on the card to the control
system (12), which then creates the two teams and carries out the
game.
Inventors: |
Pearson; Carl P. (Edmonds,
WA), Hood; David W. (Seattle, WA) |
Assignee: |
Hero, Inc. (Seattle,
WA)
|
Family
ID: |
25530443 |
Appl.
No.: |
07/984,304 |
Filed: |
November 23, 1992 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
463/36;
463/4 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A63F
13/005 (20130101); A63F 13/02 (20130101); A63F
13/812 (20140902); A63F 1/04 (20130101); A63F
2009/2413 (20130101); A63F 2009/2419 (20130101); A63F
2009/2411 (20130101); A63F 2250/285 (20130101); A63F
2300/206 (20130101); A63F 2300/8011 (20130101); A63F
2009/242 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
A63F
13/02 (20060101); A63F 13/00 (20060101); A63F
1/00 (20060101); A63F 1/04 (20060101); A63F
9/24 (20060101); A63F 009/22 () |
Field of
Search: |
;273/85G,88,237,434,438,93C |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Harrison; Jessica J.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Jensen & Puntigam
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A video game system, comprising:
an electronic game system for use with a video monitor for
displaying the playing of a video game, wherein the players in the
video game are representative of actual people with known
performance information;
software control means for carrying out a video game and
controlling the display on the monitor in accordance with a
software program stored in said software control means and in
accordance with certain selected input data for the players in the
video game supplied by trading card elements and certain additional
input data for said players which is stored in a separate system
memory means and accessed by access indicia on said trading card
elements, Wherein the access indicia on each trading card accesses
additional input data for the player featured on the trading
card;
means for obtaining for said software control means said additional
input data, which includes performance information, from said
system memory means;
card reader means supplying said selected input data and said
access indicia to said software control means, in response to the
trading card elements being selectively placed therein; and
trading card elements having stored thereon said selected input
data concerning performance information of said players and said
access indicia, wherein said selected input data and said access
indicia are readable by said card reader means.
2. A system of claim 1, wherein the trading card elements include
card elements having input data affecting the play of the game
other than player performance information.
3. A system of claim 1, wherein the video game is a sports game and
wherein the players are well-known figures in that game.
4. A system of claim 3, wherein the trading card elements include a
photograph of the player and human-readable performance information
thereon, substantially identical to existing sports trading
cards.
5. A system of claim 3, wherein the sports video game is
baseball.
6. A system of claim 1, wherein the control means is responsive to
a change in the players during playing of the game to alter the
playing of the game accordingly.
7. A system of claim 1, wherein the video monitor is a television
screen.
8. A system of claim 1, wherein the additional input data includes
information which affects the play of the game other than player
performance information.
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates generally to a video game system, and more
specifically concerns a video game system using a particular type
of input medium.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Software-based video games of varying sophistication are, of
course, well known in the home entertainment industry. Within this
general field, there exists games which are directed toward sports,
such as, for instance, baseball, football and soccer, among others,
as well as other types of interactive games (police/criminal chase
games, etc.). In order to achieve as much reality as possible, the
software for sports games, for instance, will use performance data,
typically actual statistics for active or retired players, to
produce a realistic game situation. Examples of such a
software-controlled sports video game for baseball include Extra
Innings, Super Bases Loaded and BaseWars for Nintendo systems (the
software produced by Sony Imagesoft, Jaleco and Ultragames,
respectively), as well as R.B.I. Baseball 3 for the Sega Genesis
system (the software produced by Tegen). There are other software
controlled video games for baseball as well as many other sports.
The software necessary to control a game using performance data is
thus well known.
In addition, it is known in such systems to have sufficient data in
memory concerning individual players (e.g. the baseball players
used in the game) that the that the players (users) of the video
game can select a lineup of their choosing from a list of players.
However, the selection which is available with current games is
often quite limited relative to the large number of players for
whom performance data has in fact been accumulated.
In an unrelated line of development, sports trading cards are well
known, particularly in such sports as baseball and football, but
also in other sports as well, and occasionally in some other
fields, i.e. the so-called "famous criminals" cards. Such trading
cards typically have a large photograph of the player on one side
and performance statistics on the other side. Such cards are used
only for collecting, sale and trading, however.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the invention is a video game system which comprises:
an electronic game system which includes a video monitor for
display of a video game, wherein the players in the video game are
representative of actual people; software control means for
carrying out a video game and controlling the display on the
monitor in accordance with a software program stored therein and in
accordance with certain input data supplied by trading card
elements; card reader means connected to and supplying input data
to said software control means, in response to trading card
elements being selectively played therein; and trading card
elements having input data stored thereon concerning performance
information of said players, said input data being in a form which
is readable by said card reader means.
Alternatively, the input data on the card elements could be access
data which is used to access performance information for the player
represented by the card element stored in the control means.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the system of the present
invention.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the sequence of operations of the
system of FIG. 1.
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 shows in block diagram form the system of the present
invention, referred to generally at 10. The system includes a
software-based control system 12 which carries out, i.e. controls,
the playing of the game, including the display thereof. The control
system 12 is not disclosed in detail herein because it is
conventional, i.e. such systems for carrying out a sports or other
video game are well known, as indicated above. Some examples of
such a baseball video game are provided above. Many other examples
for baseball and other sports are readily available. The control
system 12 controls the generation of the display of the game as it
progresses on a monitor 14, which can, for instance, be a
conventional TV monitor. In operation, images of the players (i.e.
the baseball players in a video baseball game) will be displayed on
the monitor, as well as the actual sequence of actions as the game
is played, all produced under the control of control system 12.
Any interaction of the video game players (the users of the video
game) with control system 12 to affect the game is accomplished
through separate control elements 16 and 18. In a baseball game,
for instance, this form of additional control might be used to
affect the game being played in the areas of pitching, hitting,
fielding and running the bases.
The key part of the system of the present invention is the player
input data which is supplied to the control system 12, and more
specifically, the particular medium on which the input data is
stored. For the example of a baseball game, statistical performance
data, such as batting average, etc., for the players which will
comprise each of the teams is supplied to the control system 12 on
a card element 20. The card element 20 will have located thereon
all of the desired performance data in machine-readable form, such
as bar code, magnetic, optical, or other form. However, it should
be understood that the present invention is not limited to a
particular type of data format. In the embodiment shown, the data
is shown in a region 21 on one side of the card. Alternatively,
performance data for a large number of players could be stored in
memory in control system 12, with card element 20 having a
correlating access number for the player on the card for the stored
data.
The card element 20 simultaneously functions as a trading card,
i.e., it is otherwise similar to a conventional sports trading card
in all respects. Thus, it has a picture 24 of a known player of the
game, such as a current or past major league baseball player on one
side, and their performance statistics printed in human-readable
form on the other side, similar to existing trading cards. These
card elements can be purchased, sold, traded, collected and
otherwise used like conventional sports trading cards. Thus, the
user can, through purchase of cards in local outlets or stores or
by mail order or some other means, accumulate a large collection of
trading cards which can be traded as well as be used as input media
in the sports video game of the present invention. The cards 20
used with the present invention thus, in effect, have an
independent, separate utility as trading cards and as an input
medium; i.e., they can be used as trading cards and/or also can be
used in the video system of the present invention.
Use of trading cards as an input medium permits the video game user
to accumulate a large number of potential players for his team
while being able to also use the cards as conventional trading
cards.
It should be understood that the input cards, such as for the
example of baseball, could include past players ("old-timers") as
well as current players. Also, there could be cards for managers
and umpires, as well as cards containing specialized input
information concerning field and weather conditions and other
factors which could influence the game, including "injury" cards,
which could be used against key players on the other side. Further,
it should be understood that while the game will typically be
played with two individual game users, the system may also be used
with a single user.
In actual use of the system, the input information on cards 20-20,
which could be performance data, an access code to data stored in
the control system memory or a combination of both, is scanned by
the remaining element of the system 10, a conventional card reader
22 which is shown somewhat schematically and which is designed to
read the input information present in area 21 of the card. The card
reader 22 supplies the information which it has read to control
system 12, and the game then is carried out by the control system
as display 14.
FIG. 2 shows in simplified form the operation of the system of the
present invention. Initially, control system 12 is activated and
the software progresses through its normal start-up routine, shown
at block 30. Then, each game user selects the players for the game
(the "line-up") from their collection of cards, as shown at block
32. The game users will then insert the individual card elements
20-20 into the card reader 22, shown at block 33, which will then
decode the performance data on the card (or the access code to the
data in the control system 12), as shown at block 34. The
individually selected players will then be displayed, as well as
the complete teams comprised of the selected players, as shown at
block 38. The performance data will then be applied to the control
system, which integrates the player information into the game
system, as shown at block 40. The game will then commence under the
control of the control system 12, and any interactive control by
the two video game users, as shown at block 42.
At any point during the playing of the game, the video game user
can substitute additional cards to change the lineup and hence the
game, as shown in block 44. Other changes can be made with other
input cards, such as for field and weather conditions, injuries,
etc. These additional input cards are also applied to the card
reader 22 by the video game user, as shown at block 46, which
decodes them and applies the information thereon to the control
system 12, thus in effect changing to some extent the game, as
shown at block 48. The game then continues, at block 50, with
players and conditions being changeable until the end of the game
occurs, shown at block 52
The present invention can be used in a wide variety of video sports
games, as trading cards for each sport become available. Also, as
discussed above, many of the conditions affecting the output of a
game can be altered/controlled within the system of the present
invention, in addition to controlling which players are to be part
of a particular game. Baseball, football and soccer, as well as
other games, are hence very suitable for use in the present
invention. Other games in addition to sports, involving competition
between two (or more) teams or entities, are possible.
Hence, a preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed
herein. It should be understood, however, that various
modifications and substitutions may be incorporated in the
embodiment, without departing from the spirit of the invention,
which is defined by the claims which follow:
* * * * *